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Tom Ridge (right) raises his hand to be sworn in by Vice President Dick Cheney (left) as the first secretary of the Homeland Security Department as U.S. President George W. Bush presides at the White House In Washington D.C. on January 24, 2003. | Mike Theiler/Getty Images

Homeland Security Department begins operations, Jan. 24, 2003

On this day in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security began operations. The department incorporated 22 agencies into a single Cabinet-level structure. Its creation marked the largest reorganization move by the federal government in the five decades since the formation of the Department of Defense in the aftermath of World War II.

In response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush established the Office of Homeland Security as an arm of the White House. Its stated mission was to coordinate all “homeland security” efforts. Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, headed the office, assuming the title of assistant to the president for homeland security. Ridge began his duties on Oct. 8, 2001.

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In 2002, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which called for assuming and expanding the functions of the White House office under the umbrella of a new department. Bush signed the bill into law on Nov. 25, 2002, and nominated Ridge to serve as its secretary.

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Critics charged that the process for deciding which existing agencies would be moved to DHS, and which ones would stay elsewhere, was flawed and irrational. Thus, the agency that supplies prosecutors in immigration court cases was moved to DHS while the agency that supplies immigration court judges remained in the Department of Justice. Neither the anti-terrorism functions of the FBI nor the CIA were incorporated into the department.

Moreover, at its inception, DHS planned to eliminate union-friendly civil service and labor protections for department employees, stripping some 180,000 workers of their union rights. Without these protections, employees could be expeditiously reassigned or dismissed on grounds of security, incompetence or insubordination, and DHS would not be required to notify their union representatives. In 2002, Bush officials argued that the 9/11 attacks made the proposed elimination of employee protections imperative.

However, in August 2005, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer blocked the plan because it failed to ensure collective-bargaining rights for DHS employees. In a 2008 court filing, DHS said it would no longer pursue the new rules and that it would abide by the existing civil service labor-management procedures.

Agencies that operate under the DHS umbrella include those that deal with customs, border protection, immigration, citizenship, transportation security, cybersecurity and disaster response. The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Secret Service are also under the department’s wing.

On Nov. 16, 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act, which elevated the mission of the former-DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate within DHS and established the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

In fiscal year 2017, Congress allocated DHS $40.6 billion. With more than 240,000 employees, DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department, after the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.